Coming First With English As A Second Language

Students who don’t speak English as their first language would seem to be at a fundamental disadvantage in English-speaking schools, but a focused approach is seeing them outperform their peers, showing that it is possible to come first with a second language.

The rapid growth in the number of non-native English speakers is one of the biggest challenges facing schools today. As recently as a decade ago, they formed a sizeable group in only a handful of schools, but increasing international mobility is changing all that.

Non-native speakers – students with English as an additional language (EAL) in the U.K. and students with English as a second language (ESL) in the U.S. – now make up one in six of all primary school pupils and one in eight of all secondary pupils in the U.K., with EAL pupils in the majority at one in nine schools. In the U.S. ESL pupils comprise one in 10 of the student population.

But while some schools are struggling to cope with the demands of teaching children whose first language is not English, others are developing methods that have proven to be so effective they are outstripping native-speakers.

Data from the U.K.’s Department for Educationshows that although pupils whose first language is English outperform EAL students in exams taken at 16, in the core subjects the position is reversed.

Analysis shows that 24.4% of EAL pupils achieved the English Baccalaureate, good passes in English, maths, history or geography, the sciences and a language, compared with 22.5% of pupils whose first language is English.

Behind these statistics lie broad consistencies in teaching methods, based on spreading good practice from schools that have had long experience in this area. At Glebe Primary in Harrow, north-west London, for example, where 92% of pupils have EAL and pupils speak 30 different languages, achievement at age 11 is above the national average and progress between ages seven and 11 is significantly above the national average.

A key plank in the school’s approach is integrating EAL pupils in the classroom, according to headteacher Donna Barratt. “It is not always placing EAL pupils together, so children can learn from each other,” she says. “Advanced speakers of English will be able to explain things to somebody who is less advanced.”

Although the school has had a significant proportion of EAL pupils for some time, recent years have seen a particular increase in the number of Gujarati, Romanian and Tamil speakers.

The decision over whether to withdraw pupils from mainstream classes or integrate them into the classroom is one of the key debates in EAL education, according to Professor Catherine Wallace, an expert in EAL at the Institute of Education in London.

The percentage of pupils with English as an additional language in schools in England has more than doubled in the last 15 years (Source: National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum)

While she says the variable quality of provision in the past gave withdrawal a bad name, a recognition that it needs to be aligned to the mainstream curriculum has helped bring about improvements. But it must still be used sparingly.

“A good EAL lesson prepares the pupils for entry into the classroom,” she says. “Judicious withdrawal can be useful, but it must be brief and linked to the curriculum as much as possible.”

This is the approach followed at Woodside High School in Haringey, north London, where 80% of pupils are EAL and the 840 students have 55 languages between them, with Turkish, Somali and Eastern European tongues the most widespread. Students who arrive with little or no English are withdrawn from regular lessons for intensive language sessions, before going full-time in mainstream classes.

“They are learning English but it is always linked to the curriculum,” says associate headteacher Elma McElligott. As a result of this approach, pupils are in the top 1% nationally for progress in English and there is no difference in achievement between EAL and non-EAL pupils.

Unlike in countries where withdrawal is the norm, limited withdrawal is one of the distinctive elements of EAL teaching in England, says Graham Smith, a former EAL advisor to London schools and now an independent consultant at the EAL Academy.